Hard Drives are set to dynamic and cannot install windows.

saintdefender · 11 Feb 2011 at 22:51

Hey guys, I don't have windows installed yet but I can't install because they are set to dynamic and so I get message " setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing partition"

Any ideas guys? Trying to do a fresh install of Windows 7 (cannot delete them either via the set up disk)

InfiniteNoise · 12 Feb 2011 at 03:10

Have you tried booting with Linux live CD and check what's up with the hard drive from there?

JonJ678 · 12 Feb 2011 at 03:37

What's a dynamic hard drive?

Similar to the above, booting from a gparted cd is usually informative

saintdefender · 16 Feb 2011 at 21:18

getting annoyed now. I have an external hard drive and no blank CDS! all I need to do is get into some sort of OS but to even boot with linux I need to stick it on a disk not on an external USB HDD.

Does ANYONE know of any linux LIVE OS that I can boot from a hard-drisk just to trouble shoot some problems and get my HDDS back to running normally? It sounds so simple yet there doesn't seem to be away, not that I have found anyway!

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the help so far

wonko · 16 Feb 2011 at 21:36

can you not boot from a usb pen drive instead of cd?

saintdefender · 16 Feb 2011 at 21:37

I have not got a USB pen drive only an external HDD : (

d_brennen · 16 Feb 2011 at 22:00

Couple of questions, what's your hardware setup? Does the Windows setup see the disks? Odd that you can't delete previous partitions...

Edit: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/liveusb.php may be of interest

dazzerd · 16 Feb 2011 at 22:36

you may be able to fix this with a linux live cd, I don't know.I had a similar problem once and I could only solve it by sticking windows on another drive and converting it back to a basic disk using disk management.

wonko · 16 Feb 2011 at 22:41

I'm confused by you saying that windows isn't yet installed...
If you're posting from a different pc, can you move the offending dynamic disk onto this pc and use disk management to convert it back to basic? (IIRC this loses any data on the disk)

d_brennen · 16 Feb 2011 at 22:46

I always thought dynamic and basic disks are only of concen to an installed OS and shouldn't matter from a setup point of view > nuke the partition and install

wonko · 16 Feb 2011 at 22:52

Well that's what I'd have thought - I've never tried to install windows onto a dynamic disk but it seems to be a problem for the op... it sounds like the problem is how to nuke the partition without a pen drive or cdr

d_brennen · 16 Feb 2011 at 23:08

Gparted will boot from a USB hdd no problems, wether that will cure OPs woes or not I'm not sure

saintdefender · 17 Feb 2011 at 14:28

Hey guys update, I have sorted it.

By the way, I am writing to you and have been writing to you on a macbook air so I cannot take the HDD out of this and stick it in my PC (Its also using flash)

I have managed to sort the problem by logging into Linux via a CD I found lying around which I burned it on to (USING MY iMAC) and I have was able to reconfigure and delete the partitions. I was able to install windows just fine this way and it is now working.

Thanks for your help guys : )

wonko · 17 Feb 2011 at 14:58

Good stuff, glad you got it sorted.
I was trying to suggest taking your troublesome hdd and attaching it as a secondary drive to your other pc (which turned out to be a macbook) to nuke, but that's all a bit academic now.
p.s. treat yourself to a pendrive sometime

!